Creating Accents and Character Voices

Kids Enjoy Character Voices

I love voicing characters and breathing life into stories. One of the things I do to promote myself as a voice actor is reading children’s books. I especially enjoy lending my voice to stories that inspire imagination. Children like to hear parents or grandparents read to them and add different voices to each character, and many people are using the internet to tell stories to kids. So as part of my marketing strategy, I decided to animate a few popular children’s books and read them using my talent to give each character a voice of their own. I find it very satisfying to post a new book on my YouTube channel and watch the number of views start to climb.

In the months before I had my voice over demos in hand, while being trained by my first voice coach, my wife suggested I produce a few Read-Aloud books for elementary school teachers. Teachers are always online looking for new resources and read aloud books provide a way for teachers and students to enjoy following a story to learn sight reading skills. Teachers do not have to read the book out loud themselves to share the story with their class. So when I started putting together children’s popular stories with different character voices I discovered a niche for voice acting that allows me to practice my craft and build an audience. It’s a win-win.

For the book “The Scrambled States of America” by Laurie Keller, I voiced several different states calling on accents that fit the region to help kids understand how people speak in different parts of the country. Along with the narration by “Uncle Sam” I provide 10 different voices for the states that are featured in the story. It is amazing how accents change from one place to another and just how much I have taken for granted my own ability to blend my voice comfortably with California, Texas, Hawaii, New York, Maine, and Minnesota, which each have their own unique sound.

I put a great deal of work in providing quality productions for the stories I upload on YouTube. In addition to voicing characters I also do all of the scanning, cleanup, added animation, and video production to ensure that children, parents, and teachers are watching the best interpretation of the authors’ original work. While I do have demos for different accents and celebrity impressions on my website, I find it rewarding to read the stories that light up a child’s imagination by including different character voices or accents into each book I present.

You can hear a selection of my character voices by visiting https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6Ob7oI2iTiGGdVr9fyTvg?spfreload=5

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